Hall & Oates Stay In Touch With Success

Daryl Hall sounds quite calm for a guy who can`t seem to convince the world that he and his musical partner, John Oates, are serious artists and not gay lovers.

He sounds relaxed for a guy that`s not happy with how he and Oates are portrayed in the press, especially in a recent cover story in Rolling Stone magazine. Over the phone from Memphis, Hall doesn`t sound at all like the tortured, unappreciated artist, unfairly maligned for being too commercial.

This is the calm after the storm.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, the hottest pop duo of the `80s, are getting used to the perils of success.

One might think that there`s vindication in numbers; that five platinum and nine gold records and some dozen Top 10 singles would serve as substantial armor against critics, and turn conversations and questions to the duo`s working relationship rather than a rumored gay relationship.

Hall finally has come to grips with the way things are once you become a hit- making machine.

``I go through periods of (feeling misunderstood and persecuted),`` says Hall. ``I`ve been changing my thoughts on that though. I`m really satisfied now. John and I are both content with what we`re doing.``

``Success causes preconceptions. It doesn`t cause us to be something. The press and public try to lock us into a mold. The bigger you get, the more it happens. We don`t want to be forced into a pattern.``

One thing Hall & Oates have been trying to dodge since they appeared bare- chested and in heavy make up on the cover of their 1975 album, Daryl Hall/ John Oates, is that the two are lovers.

``It`s one of those things that has dogged us for years,`` Hall says. ``It`s our cross to bear. I`ve been asked that 8 zillion times. I keep saying no, but people still ask it. I`m used to it. I`ve had to learn to accept it. No matter what I do, people still come back with it.``

Another thing that puts the pair on the defensive is the charge that Oates is almost superfluous to Hall & Oates. In it`s Jan. 17 cover story, Rolling Stone magazine referred to Oates as Hall`s ``not-so-equal partner.`` Hall resents the remark, but takes it in stride.

``Luckily for us, John and I are very strong, close friends. It`s rough on John. He doesn`t need it. He doesn`t deserve it. Anyone with any brains will see that John Oates is very much an equal. Just because I look the way I do (pinup poster tall, blond and blue-eyed) and sing most of the leads doesn`t mean he`s not equal.``

Performing and recording as a duo is part curse. Mick Jagger gets the lion`s share of publicity in the Rolling Stones, but no one calls Ron Wood or Charlie Watts an unequal partner. Notes Hall: ``Somehow they lucked out.``

Hall also was criticized for his remark in the same article about the pair being the Beatles of the `80s. He knew he would be called to account for that statement.

``That was said in complete `jokiness` in the midst of a lot of laughter and talking. The reporter asked, `So what are you guys?` and I said the Beatles of the `80s. It was a joke said like Muhammed Ali would say something.``

Hall is on a roll now. ``You want to talk about that? Well, that whole article was a weird situation where someone feigned friendship and hung out with us for a long time and was privy to things she shouldn`t have been because she didn`t understand what was going on. The result is a completely false version of what happens.``

But Hall & Oates have found the perfect way to answer their critics: by writing songs that have bombarded the record charts, especially since 1980. Their latest album, Big Bam Boom, which includes the Top 10 hits Out of Touch and Method of Modern Love, is no exception.

Thick with their trademark dance rhythms and percussion sounds, the album is more than a DJ`s dream.

With titles like Out of Touch, Possession Obsession, Going Through the Motions and Cold, Dark and Yesterday, Hall says, ``It`s about people being obsessed with themselves and their own sense of success. It`s a social statement, too, about society in general. We`re so concerned with our own goals. We`re still caught up in the `Me Generation.` ``

Though the album already is mother to two massive hits, Hall says he and Oates don`t consciously try to write hits.

``We never think about writing hits. We just try to write the best song we can. The songs stem from emotional situations. We try to sustain those moods. Technically they can begin anyway, with a lyric or a chorus.``

Top 40 radio listeners have not heard the last from Big Bam Boom. A third single, Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid, is being released and a video already has been completed for the album`s fourth single, Possession Obsession. Hall makes sure to credit Oates for that tune. ``Possession Obsession is John`s song. He came up with that phrase and the music.``

Hall calls the duo`s songwriting ``a family operation,`` for behind the scenes several people often are involved.